honestly united

I've signed up if you could please verify. Thought may as well give it a try nothing to lose by the looks of it

Didn't even realise big Gordy was in the squad, and I think Dunbar came off injured last week didn't he? Not a fan of having your sub for a position actually starting (Skinner being the 2nd row replacement) but other than that I could complain about Horne and Harris being in the squad, and Kinghorn being a better option for the bench, and Price starting over Horne jr but its nit picking to be fair.

Im not against signing another FB, I am fully expecting we will. However if we have no grunt up front we wont win any ball to utilise our new attaching full back. I fully expect Gray to be the next out the door when his contract expires and that will be an even bigger whole to fill, just think we should be starting now ,and that should be the priority signing

To be fair I would rather the money was spent on a couple of 2nd rows, as that is where we are short, and gray is probably next out the door. We have Jackson and Thompson to cover full back as it is, with Seymour and matawalu as back up so no glaring need to spend any spare cash on a big name there

McCall's managed to put together a fantastic squad, I'd rather keep it together if possible for a number of season. I would keep the majority no matter what league we are in next season, and if we sign them up know we wont be losing any in the summer, except for a fee.

The likes of Smith, Rose and Murdoch would first team players even if we go up a league so should be offered a deal with an increase if we go up. The likes of Crawford, Forrest, McDaid, Harvie, Kerr would probably decent players to have in the squad, if not starting if we go up, starters if we are still in the championship so would be in the same boat.

We should be looking to tie up the majority of the squad on longer deals now to stave off any interest in January onwards for pre-contacts.

Felt a bit sorry for Graham, as has been mentioned he wasn't even asked to a Scotland squad prior to his call up to the England squad, and as he was mid 20's probably thought he would take the money from England (even the b squad money would be decent) if Scotland were not going to ask him to play for us. I hope we get him and Thompson capped as soon as possible, as out back row options are going to look pretty decent come the world cup

Germany win quite comfortably against hong kong in the other first round match 26-9 Some other interesting results over the weekend, Italy come from behind to beat Georgia at home 28-17 and Russia demolish Namibia 47-20. For me though the most suprising was that the NZ Maori's only managed to beat Brazil 35-3 - Brazil have come on leaps and bounds the last few years and have already scored wins over USA and Canada in the ARC, and will only get better with a good chunk of there players have just got pro contracts with MLR in the US. Also forgot to mention the motm award, a can of tennents in a plastic cube, seriously....

I thought the first few episodes were cracking up there with the best stuff on TV, last one with all the Chief and all the new characters in the house wasn't as good, but so far its up there with the best of the Netflix marvel shows

To be fair if we went back 4 or 5 years Kinghorn and Hastings now were where Hogg and Russell were then. What they are both lacking is experience which will only come with game time. Both are now extremely important players for thier club sides (Kinghorn more so) and to improve need the opportunity to play test matches.

If we had the same performance every year as this year we would be top 15, and too be fair its been a good year for clubs, but hardly stellar yet. If Hibs or Aberdeen had been able to get to the group stage also, and picked up a few more points that would have been excellent, and given us a real boost

Although one of the other 2nd rows he is competing with is also Scottish, ex Embra player, who's name slips my mind at the moment.

I was going to say we should be focusing on the positions above, as 17th has all the teams entering at a round later, except for the 3rd place team, but its currently Czech Rep on 25.275 points and I cant see us gaining 4 points on them (plus Serbia and Cyprus) this year. Definately needs to be the target for next year, then 15th which gets us 2 CL places, currently Switzerland on 26.3 so a gain of 5 points

We do need to build a squad of 30 plus that are all about the same standard so we dont see a drop when someone else comes in, or of a different style where by we can change the tactics with different players. I think its more that the selections for this game dont really seem to make much sense other than giving players game time

Toonie has defintaely got one eye on Argentina and SA with this selection. I think pretty much everyone (bar Weir and McGuigan??) that was unable to be part of the squad last week gets game time this week. Watson and Gray are rested with bigger games to come, and Hogg starts in his first game back after 2 months out injured to get some match fitness. For all the talk in respecting Fiji, they are a top side etc, it has a look of them thinking that Nel and Dell with push them about in the scrums so we will be alright up front!

The point of a pyramid is that there are different criteria as you get higher. In theory it should start off at the bottom rung being amateurs where the only requirement would be a pitch and somewhere to get changed, and as you move higher up the requirements get higher, such as fenced off park, cover for fans, floodlights etc. The problem we have is that for too long different leagues have run as their own little fiefdoms and not been joined up in any way, in fact trying to do the exact opposite

Im hoping Thompson at least gets some time training with the squad this november, so he is not coming in Fresh for the 6N. How long is Barclay out for, as I would have him and Watson as the 2 nailed on starters, then depending on how we want to play / the opposition Barclay is either 6 or 8. I would also be looking at shifting Fagersson to 6, he is a great prospect just doesn't / wont have the size needed to be a great international no.8, but does have all the skills for wing forward.

I think they did fall out, dont know why. Probably goes back to their Glasgow days as I think Strauss was put out that he never got offered another contract at Glasgow. To be fair he had already said he wanted to play in England, so Toonie probably thought there was no point in offering him, but Strauss probably felt put out by not even getting offered one.

Really surprised by Strauss and Weir call ups, Weir more understandable as Lang got injured at the weekend for Harlequins, but Strauss it appears is due to Townsend realising that none of the forwards can grind out the hard yards.

good try to get back n the game

We've got Fiji, Argentina and SA for the AI's. This is a bonus game so the SRU can afford to offer new contracts to Hogg and Gray in hte hope we dont lose them to France or England.

Hardie signed with Newcastle. Still dont think we will ever see him in a Scotland shirt again, not matter how well he does.

If the ER juniors become a feeder to the LL, doesn't that leave the SFA open to legal action given that clubs from above the LL/HL line were told they couldn't join the EoS last year as they were outside their area? Even if this is true, my likely take on what will happen is that the west takes care of itself, although long term what happens with SoS is up for debate. The west having 4 region wide divisions is not really a pyramid structure so potential for merging is possible at some point in the future. In the east I can see them running a parallel East Junior league at tiers 6 & 7 next year which champions playing off for the right to enter LL playoff, then final league positions being used to merge the 2 leagues into one for 20/21. Those clubs close to the boundary given a choice whether they go north or south.

The ref looks quite young, take it he will be called in for some further education* after the game. *reminded Irish teams shouldn't lose at home